News

NEW: Realtor to launch County Board campaign tomorrow

By Jo DeVoe
Arlington County Board candidate Natalie Roy (courtesy photo)

A realtor who says she has doubts about the current Missing Middle proposal has emerged as an Arlington County Board candidate.

Realtor Natalie Roy, founder of the Bicycling Realty Group, is vying for one of two seats on the County Board that will be left open after Katie Cristol and Chair Christian Dorsey step down. She is running for the Democratic nomination in the party’s June primary.

Roy is the second Democrat to launch a campaign this week, following Tony Weaver, a local businessman and an Arlington County Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission member.

The two will face off against three others who have already announced their bids: Julius “J.D.” Spain, Sr.; Maureen Coffey; and Jonathan Dromgoole.

She tells ARLnow her tagline is “I would love to be your Bicycling Board member,” as she bikes everywhere for her business. She is a 32-year resident of Arlington, where she and her husband raised three daughters.

Roy says she believes “the Board needs an energetic and experienced community activist who will serve the entire county.”

In listing her key issues, below, she said she supports “a more community-supported, planning-oriented approach” to housing than the “sweeping” Missing Middle proposal, which is up for an initial vote this weekend.

  • Protecting our environment, by increasing green space, bringing back glass recycling, and protecting Arlington’s tree canopy;
  • Promoting affordability and diversity in our neighborhoods through a more community-supported, planning-oriented approach than the County Board’s current sweeping proposal;
  • Forging new partnerships between the Board, the school board and APS;
  • Improving public transit throughout the County and creating more protected bike- and pedestrian-friendly routes;
  • Enhancing Arlington’s fiscal sustainability and economic vitality; and
  • Promoting our health and well-being by providing exercise opportunities for everyone, from the most focused competitor on the soccer field and pickleball court to the casual stroller.

Before starting her real estate career 10 years ago, Roy says she worked for ran and worked for various national and state organizations, advocating for clean water, pollution prevention, clean beaches, recycling and gun control.

She has served on and led the PTAs of the local public schools her daughters attended and recently retired from a 17-year stint coaching varsity tennis at Yorktown High School. She is active in the Lyon Park Civic Association and the Lyon Park Board of Governors, which manages the Lyon Park Community Center, owned and maintained by the neighborhood.

Roy graduated from the county’s civic leadership program, Neighborhood College, and served on the Arlington Sports Commission as well as the county’s Complete Vaccine Committee.

For several years, she played on an Arlington mature women’s soccer team, the Speed Bumps, whose motto was “We might not beat you, but we will slow you down.”

Roy will officially launch her campaign for a seat on the Arlington County Board tomorrow (Friday).

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
A rainy, foggy day on N. Culpeper Street (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Ramp Closing for VDOT Project — “Beginning at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, weather permitting, the ramp from southbound I-395 to westbound Boundary Channel Drive (Exit 10A) will be closed for several months as part of the Boundary Channel Drive at I-395 Interchange Improvements project… Drivers will be able to access westbound Boundary Channel Drive via the southbound I-395 Exit 9 (Clark Street) ramp, where there will be a temporary stop sign for left turns onto westbound Boundary Channel. This traffic pattern will be in place until mid-2023.” [VDOT]

Overturned Vehicle Near Pentagon City — “Scanner: ACFD is on scene of a vehicle flipped on its side near Pentagon City, at the rear of the Horizon House condo complex along S. Nash Street. Elderly male driver was removed from the vehicle and is being evaluated for injuries.” [Twitter]

County Historic Preservation Grants — “Arlington County has launched the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), a competitive grant program that will support community and individual projects related to Arlington’s history, built environment, and cultural heritage. The application period is now open. It closes on April 28, 2023.” [Arlington County]

State Readies HQ2 Grants — “Amazon.com Inc. on July 1 will be due a first round of incentive payments from Virginia, just shy of five years after the e-commerce giant agreed to build a $2.5 billion second headquarters in Arlington and create thousands of new jobs. In his revised two-year budget bill now before the General Assembly’s appropriations committees, Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposes to set aside $78 million in the Major Headquarters Workforce Grant Fund for Amazon.” [Washington Business Journal]

Jeff Bezos in Town — “Several well-placed sources tell me Jeff Bezos was at Washington Post headquarters today, meeting with publisher and C.E.O. Fred Ryan. The visit comes after months of internal frustrations with Ryan’s leadership, and a fallout between Ryan and executive editor Sally Buzbee over the direction of the paper.” [Puck, Twitter]

Big Round for Local Startup — “Arlington-based EarthOptics, a soil tester that uses satellite imagery and machine learning to create detailed carbon maps of farms, raised a $27.6 million funding round to grow internationally and meet what it says has been a fast-growing market demand in just the past year.” [Washington Business Journal]

Where Arlington Ends & D.C. Begins — From WAMU’s Jordan Pascale: “[Today] I learned that the traffic circle outside of Arlington Cemetery is actually still Washington D.C.” [Twitter]

It’s Thursday — Rain until evening. High of 54 and low of 39. Sunrise at 7:25 am and sunset at 5:16 pm. [Weather.gov]

More 20 mph school zones head to County Board this weekend

By Jo DeVoe
20 mph signage near Bishop O’Connell High School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Lower speeds near schools could soon become countywide policy in Arlington.

On Saturday, the Arlington County Board is set to consider an ordinance to lower speed limits to 20 miles per hour on streets within 600 feet of a school property or pedestrian crossing in the vicinity of the school. This would expand on slow zones around 13 schools instituted last year.

The county says in a report that the proposed slow zones respond to positive community feedback from the first round of school zones and are part of its efforts to eliminate traffic-related serious injuries and deaths by 2030, also known as “Vision Zero.”

The ordinance comes as Arlington County appears to have ended 2022 with fewer severe injury crashes than 2021 — when the County Board approved a Vision Zero plan — but the same number of fatal crashes.

In 2022, there were 44 severe and four fatal crashes, including two fatal pedestrian-involved crashes, per county data available through Nov. 23, 2022. The year before, there were 61 severe and four fatal crashes, none of which involved a pedestrian.

If approved, the Dept. of Environmental Services will lower the speed limit on 36 road segments starting next month, according to spokesman Peter Golkin.

“We expect signs to start posting the new speed limit in February-March,” he said. “We will follow up with additional pavement markings in the spring once weather permits.”

When complete, drivers will notice treatments such as high visibility crossings and school zone signage within the school zone, as well as appropriate speed limits on the school’s beaconed arterial roadways, per a December Vision Zero newsletter.

The new, lowered speed limit of 20 mph, applicable at all times of day, will be in effect and enforceable “as soon as the new speed limit signs are posted,” Golkin said.

To remind drivers of the change, the county will send public announcements during February and March through county email lists, civic associations, APS channels and social media, he said, noting that “news coverage like ARLnow’s will also be a great help.”

In addition, he said, the signs themselves will be a notification.

“Drivers should always be cognizant of the speed limit when driving,” the DES spokesman said. “They also have a bright neon yellow SCHOOL symbol on top of them, which should generate extra attention.”

The Arlington County Board last year took another step to reduce speeds, approving the installation of moveable speed cameras in school and work zones. In response to a rash of critical crashes, including a fatal pedestrian fatally struck near Nottingham Elementary School in October, Board members put more pressure on staff to respond more quickly.

Around where the pedestrian was struck on Little Falls Road, Arlington County police issued 10 traffic ticket in one hour during a one-day enforcement effort last month. Also in mid-December, some “quick-build” improvements were installed along the road, between John Marshall Drive & N. Kensington Street, per the December Vision Zero newsletter, below.

The improvements at John Marshall Drive include:

  • Addition of a high visibility crosswalk on the south crosswalk
  • Tactical curb extensions to sharpen/slow down turning vehicle turns and reduce crossing distances
  • Additional signage

Improvements at N. Lexington Street include:

  • Bus stop/sharrow markings
  • High visibility crosswalks
  • A tactical curb extension to sharpen/slow down turning vehicle turns and reduce crossing distances.

Improvements at N. Kensington Street (north side) include:

  • High visibility crosswalks
  • Tactical curb extensions to sharpen/slow down turning vehicle turns and reduce crossing distances
  • Enhanced signage at the crossing over Little Falls Road
  • Changing the yield to a stop sign (south side)

These improvements are currently in progress and will ultimately encourage slower vehicle speeds, and improved pedestrian and transit maneuvers.

Additionally, DES is conducting an all-way stop evaluation and is collecting footage of the Little Falls Rd and John Marshall Dr intersection to monitor operations between all road users. These evaluations will be considered as DES plans for permanent intersection improvements.

‘Quick-build’ changes to John Marshall Drive (via Arlington County)

Developer buys property Rhodeside Grill and Il Radicchio buildings and offices for $14M

By Jo DeVoe
1/7

A property between Rosslyn and Courthouse that is home to an office building and two long-time restaurants has been sold to a developer with plans to build apartments and retail.

D.C.-based The Fortis Cos. bought the property at the intersection of Wilson Blvd and N. Rhodes Street for $14 million.

The site includes a four-story, 48,000-square-foot office building (1840 Wilson Blvd) and the restaurants Il Radicchio and Rhodeside Grill. The office building was the headquarters for the property’s previous owner, the nonprofit National Science Teaching Association (NSTA).

“This is a very familiar and highly visible property within the County and along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, and FORTIS is excited work on a new vision for the site, which will likely be mixed-use multifamily residential over ground floor retail,” Fortis Vice President Matt Bunch tells ARLnow.

In a press release announcing the sale, real estate company CBRE — which represented the nonprofit in the transaction — called the property “one of the last commercial development sites in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in Arlington.”

Its development potential and quarter-mile distance from the Courthouse Metro Station generated “a high level of interest from prospective buyers,” CBRE Senior Vice President Dean Stiles said in a statement. “We are confident that it will be a valuable asset for Fortis.”

Arlington County has identified this site for mixed-use redevelopment, and Fortis intends to build a seven-story, 85-foot-tall apartment building.

Bunch says that plans for the site are still tentative and there’s no timeline to share — yet.

“We are in the very early stages of exploring design alternatives for the property, but we look forward to working with the County and community this year as we pursue new redevelopment ideas for the block,” Bunch said. “As of the moment, we don’t have a timeline to share but we do intend to seek an extension of the prior site plan this year.”

Last year, Fortis submitted a conceptual site plan outlining its intentions and seeking county feedback on how high it can build. The application laid out plans to file an amendment in the first quarter of 2023 seeking an extension of the site plan until 2026.

This July, an existing site plan that is nearly 20 years old and has been extended several times will expire.

In November of 2005, the Arlington County Board originally approved a site plan that would have retained the NSTA building, demolished the restaurants and replaced them with a new, six-story office building with nearly 62,000 square feet of office space and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space.

In 2008, it granted an extension until 2011 and it was automatically extended until July 2020 by a state statute enacted in the wake of the Great Recession. The County Board subsequently granted extension until July 1, 2023.

This would be the second current project in Arlington for Fortis, which has also reprised long-dormant plans to turn a single-family detached home off of Route 50 near Courthouse into an apartment building.

“[It] is consistent with our strategy to create well-located and walkable transit-oriented redevelopments,” Bunch said. “It is also a testament to what we believe are strong economic fundamentals and demand drivers in the County that will continue for the foreseeable future.”

NSTA said via press release that it was time to let go of its physical presence in D.C. because the pandemic proved the organization could function well remotely.

“The organization was able to continue to function at a high level throughout the pandemic, while staff worked remotely and NSTA members were able to take part in many excellent virtual meetings and professional programs,” said NSTA Executive Director Erika Shugart, Ph.D. “After a long and thorough process and careful consideration, our board of directors decided to sell the property.”

Covid cases coming down in Arlington, but hospitalizations move county to ‘medium’ level

By ARLnow.com
CDC map of Covid levels as of Jan. 17, 2023 (via CDC)

Covid appears to be on the decline in Arlington, but hospitalization levels rose sufficiently last week to move the county to the CDC’s “medium” Covid level.

The level moved from “low” to “medium” as of last Thursday. The latest Virginia Dept. of Health stats, however, show cases falling to a seven-day moving average of 38 per day as of yesterday (Tuesday), from a seasonal peak of 65 cases per day just before Christmas.

The CDC level change was prompted by a rise in Covid-related hospital admissions above the 10 per 100,000 residents per week mark. That metric stood at 12 as of Thursday.

Among neighboring jurisdictions, D.C. and Fairfax County are both at the “medium” level, while Alexandria is now at the “high” community level due to a combination of infection and hospitalization rates.

Virginia Hospital Center emergency department chair Mike Silverman, in his weekly Facebook post Friday night, said the hospital is “full” but Covid cases are declining.

After a couple of weeks of very high emergency department volume, our hospital is full. My colleagues are seeing this all over the country as well. This makes it more challenging to care for the patients coming into the emergency department as we have more patients “boarding” (waiting on their inpatient bed to be available) than typical. Even though our ER volume has come down a little bit compared to recent weeks, it still feels just as chaotic because of all these extra patients waiting for a bed to be available.

Along with a slight drop in volume, we have also seen a decrease in the amount of COVID were diagnosing. Overall, we diagnosed about 20% less patients with COVID this week compared to the prior 2 weeks. Our overall percent positivity fell from about 16.5% to 12.4%. The biggest drop we saw was in our symptomatic patients. Although we had about 20% less patients classified as symptomatic, we had about a 40% drop in the number of positives. This correlates to a 31% positivity rate dropping to a 21% positivity rate. Our general screening percent positivity remained stable at about 11%. For these patients, either the clinician has a low suspicion that the patient has COVID, but COVID is included in the differential diagnosis, or they are asymptomatic and require testing for admission/surgery/etc.

Consistent with the reduction in new diagnoses, we also saw a reduction in the number of patients who required COVID isolation in the ER compared to the prior two weeks. And the hospital has about 20% less admitted COVID patients than we did last week.

Covid cases in Arlington as of Jan. 17, 2023 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
ACPD motor patrol officers use radar to catch speeders along Four Mile Run in Shirlington (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

W-L Hoops Team Grieves Teammate — “Shortly past midnight, on his ride home, a teenager driving under the influence crashed into Meade’s car, killing the senior. He was 17. ‘You can see them sometimes just looking outside,’ Washington-Liberty Coach Bobby Dobson said of his players. ‘They miss him. I miss him.’ This winter, Washington-Liberty is one of several Northern Virginia basketball teams grieving in the wake of a player’s sudden and gutting death… All three teams have turned to their sport as an outlet to recover.” [Washington Post]

Wreath Removal This Weekend — “Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) and Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery (SAHNC) in Washington, D.C. will hold their annual removal of wreaths, known as Wreaths Out, on Saturday, January 21, beginning at 8 a.m. Thousands of visitors are expected to help remove approximately 257,000 wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery.” [Press Release]

Local Rents Still Slipping — “With a median December monthly rental price of $2,143 ($2,023 for one-bedroom units, $2,421 for two bedrooms), Arlington ranked as the 10th most expensive urban area among the 100 tracked by Apartment List. The firm’s first data report for 2023 came out Jan. 5… Arlington rents declined 1.6 percent month-over-month in the new data, twice the national decline and the 17th largest falloff among the 100 cities in the survey.” [Sun Gazette]

Marymount Adds NARCAN Boxes — “Twenty-nine new opioid overdose emergency boxes were installed in December – 26 at Marymount’s Main Campus and three at its Ballston Center – all directly adjacent to AED locations. They provide anyone on University property with emergency access to the lifesaving medication NARCAN, while also helping to reduce stigma and normalize the drug as a common first aid tool.” [Marymount University]

Arlington Man Faces Life Sentence — ” An Arlington man who was convicted after a three-week trial in October faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison at his sentencing scheduled for February for his role in killings carried out by the MS-13 gang, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland. Co-defendants Luis Flores-Reyes, 42, of Arlington and Jairo Jacome, 40, of Langley Park, Maryland, were convicted on the charges of racketeering conspiracy and murder.” [Patch]

Rainy Day Crashes — A pair of notable crashes were reported yesterday during the rainy weather, including one that damaged a county light pole on S. George Mason Drive and another that temporarily shut down Shirlington Circle over I-395. [Twitter, Twitter]

Local Restaurateur Expanding to Tysons — “Northern Virginia restaurateur Reese Gardner is expanding into Fairfax County. Gardner’s hospitality group, behind Arlington eateries including Copperwood Tavern, The Pinemoor and Quinn’s on the Corner, plans to open a classic American restaurant to be called Ox & Rye at Capital One Center in Tysons. The roughly 11,000-square-foot restaurant, to be located at 7770 Capital One Tower Road, will be the largest of seven for their Wooden Nickel Bar Co.” [Washington Business Journal]

It’s Wednesday — Mostly cloudy throughout the day. High of 53 and low of 43. Sunrise at 7:25 am and sunset at 5:14 pm. [Weather.gov]

Arlington warns of shortened public speaking times ahead of ‘Missing Middle’ hearing

By Jo DeVoe
1/6

Proposed Missing Middle zoning code changes are set to go before the Arlington County Board for a first look on Saturday.

The Board is slated to review a request to advertise public hearings on a proposal to allow the by-right construction of duplexes, three-unit townhouses and multi-family buildings with up to six or eight dwellings on lots of up to one acre in Arlington’s lowest-density zoning districts.

The proposal includes several options for regulating the number of so-called “expanded housing option uses” (EHOs) built per year, their density and size, and parking and tree canopy coverage.

If Board members approve this request to advertise (RTA), the Arlington County Planning Commission and the County Board will have two months to pick a slate of regulatory mechanisms before holding hearings and, potentially, adopting the proposal in March.

Ahead of the request to advertise, Arlington County warned that speaking times may be shortened on account of the intense public interest in the wide-ranging changes.

“If 75 or more speakers sign up to speak on one item, speaking times will be reduced to 2 minutes for all individuals and 3 minutes for all organizations,” the announcement said. “Speakers will be notified if speaking times change.”

The County Board members adopted an ordinance allowing such time reductions last month, after droves of residents came out to speak about Missing Middle in meetings over the last year.

In addition to possibly shortening speaking times, the county will prioritize hearing from different speakers this month and in March.

“When people sign up to speak at the March public hearing, the Clerk’s staff will identify those that did not speak in January and place them first in the speaking order, followed by anyone that spoke did speak at the January hearing,” county spokesman Ryan Hudson said. “Anyone that signs up to speak will have the opportunity to do so.”

Ahead of the meeting, Missing Middle proponent group YIMBYs of Northern Virginia said this RTA has been years in the making. It says development under this plan will be as “distributed [and] gradual,” but that the county has to start somewhere.

“To further improve affordability, Arlington policymakers can revisit regulations such as height limits in the future, but they must start by legalizing up to 8 units per lot with minimal regulatory burdens, which requires maximum flexibility in the RTA,” the group said in a statement to ARLnow.

(YIMBY stands for “Yes In My Backyard,” the pro-building counterpart to the build-elsewhere-if-at-all NIMBYs, who generally reject that label.)

YIMBYs of NoVA highlighted other organizations supporting the proposal, including the Arlington branch of the NAACP, the Sierra Club and Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE).

“Arlington faces a fundamental choice between growth and inclusion or stagnation and spiraling inequality,” the group said. “Continuing the status quo would be an unsustainable future for Arlingtonians, forcing more essential workers into long commutes and driving more young families to relocate, often to exurban sprawl.”

Arlingtonians for Upzoning Transparency (AFUT), which opposes the proposal, claims that the plan as written will:

  • Make Arlington less diverse;
  • Ignore the thoughtful views of experts and its own advisory groups;
  • Are not needed to meet the Metropolitan Washington Area Council of Governments’ (COG) goals for housing in Arlington and lack the necessary analysis and planning to begin an iterative process;
  • Leave behind low, moderate, and middle-income households — with a one bedroom unit in an 8-plex requiring a household income at 117% of AMI; and
  • Are not integrated with our interconnected priorities for transportation, the environment, and job growth.

(more…)

Panera ‘temporarily’ closed at Pentagon City mall

By ARLnow.com
Panera Bread closed in the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City food court (staff photo)

The Panera Bread location in the Pentagon City mall food court is shuttered, but the closure may only be temporary.

The eatery was closed as of last week. ARLnow is told that the closure is “temporary at this point,” though a reopening date was not given.

The location has been removed from the list on Panera’s website. It first opened in 2013, as did a Rosslyn location at 1700 N. Moore Street that remains open — the only currently open Panera Bread in Arlington.

A Panera location at Tysons Corner Center mall closed permanently late last month, while a Ballston mall location closed in 2016.

Another carjacking reported, this time in Crystal City

By ARLnow.com
Police car speeding to a call at night (staff photo)

Two people were carjacked in Crystal City on Sunday night, the second carjacking reported in Arlington last week.

It happened around 10 p.m. along the neighborhood’s 23rd Street S. restaurant row. At least one of the carjackers was armed, police said.

“A patrol officer was flagged down by the two victims who reported a carjacking,” the Arlington County Police Department said in a crime report today. “The investigation determined the victims were at their parked vehicle when the suspect vehicle approached and the three suspects exited. One suspect brandished a firearm as they approached the victims and demanded their vehicle. The suspects then fled the area in the victim’s stolen vehicle, which is described as a 2019 white Audi A5 with VA license plate UEF9067, with the suspect vehicle following.”

No injuries were reported, ACPD said. The suspects remain at large.

The other reported carjacking last week happened on Thursday, near Columbia Pike, when a 54-year-old Arlington man allegedly carjacked a woman he knows.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
The airport bar at DCA (Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf)

Another County Board Candidate — “Tony Weaver — a community leader, business owner and employer in Arlington County — has announced his candidacy for the Arlington County Board.” (He joins three other candidates, so far, who are seeking the Democratic nomination for two open seats.) [Press Release]

Doreen Gentzler on Arlington — “It’s changed so much. I was a kid living in North Arlington, and my grandparents were over in South Arlington. I could get on my bike and ride my bike over to my grandparents’ house in South Arlington. What’s now Skyline Towers, when I was a kid, was a small airport. There was a place to ride ponies right at the heart of Bailey’s Crossroads. It’s so, so, so much development. I think Arlington has done a great job in so many ways in managing development.” [Northern Virginia Magazine]

APS Students ‘Juiced Up’ for Ovi — “Shortly before the Caps’ thirty-minute practice at 11 am, the kiddos got off busses and squeezed onto the metal benches in the grandstand. The practice facility erupted in high-pitched, prepubescent cheers as Ovi walked out of the locker room and onto the ice. Ovechkin waved to acknowledge them. ‘They were lively,’ Laviolette said. ‘They were juiced up.'” [RMNB]

It’s Restaurant Week — “Let the dining extravaganza begin! Winter Restaurant Week runs Jan. 16-22 across the DMV, with more than 50 participating restaurants in Northern Virginia alone, where you’ll find special, discounted menus and beverages.” [Arlington Magazine]

New Arlington Rental Ranking — Arlington has ranked No. 20 on a list of “Best Cities for Finding New Apartments in 2023.” [RentCafe]

Home Prices Show Regional Decline — “The median home-sales price in the Washington metropolitan area in December was down 15 percent from the market peak last spring, and for the first time since 2016 showed a year-over-year decline, according to new data. The figures, reported Jan. 12 with data from Bright MLS, came as the 2022 market ended on a somewhat frigid note.” [Sun Gazette]

W-L Senior Named to All-State Team — “Washington-Liberty High School senior defensive lineman Elijah Hughes was chosen as a first-team Virginia High School League Class 6 all-state player on defense… Hughes will play college football at the University of Southern California.” [Sun Gazette]

It’s Tuesday — Light rain in the morning and afternoon. High of 50 and low of 36. Sunrise at 7:26 am and sunset at 5:13 pm. [Weather.gov]

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

Local need for food assistance rises as inflation persists

By Jo DeVoe
Arlingtonians wait in line for holiday meals at the Arlington Food Assistance Center (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

Sally Diaz-Wells, who coordinates the food pantry at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Arlington, just got the weekly egg bill.

It was $2,000, which makes up nearly 20% of the church’s weekly budget of $12,000 for purchasing food for distribution.

Arlington Food Assistance Center CEO Charles Meng says the wholesale price for a dozen eggs in January 2021 was $0.98. This month, AFAC paid $4.45 per dozen. Overall, food prices are up 35% for AFAC, which is already over its $1.3 million budget by $160,000.

The uptick in food prices, driven largely by inflation, is squeezing local food and meal distributors, which are at the same time seeing more Arlington residents come, and come more often, for free food. Inflation again is to blame for this, as clients report their earnings are covering less of their grocery bills, local food assistance providers said during an Arlington Committee of 100 panel on hunger held Wednesday.

“These numbers are not pandemic-related numbers,” Meng said. “These are numbers related to the basic need in Arlington, plus the burdens based on our families by inflation in particular.”

Providers say this is hitting the working poor the worst.

“This group comes to us when they need us, once or twice a month,” Meng said. “When their other benefits start running out, they’ll come to us more often.”

They tend to come after paying for other necessities like rent, utilities and medical expenses, says Stephanie Hopkins, the food security coordinator for Arlington County Department of Human Services.

“We find that people spend their available income on rent, utilities and medical expenses, and other bills, and if there’s enough money to pay for food, they will pay for their own food,” she said. “If there’s not enough money, that’s when they lean on food assistance network.”

More families who otherwise would be able to pay are leaning on Arlington Public Schools for meals, too, says Amy Maclosky, the director of the Office of Food and Nutrition Services for APS.

“Student meal debt has increased a lot this year and it has increased for paying students,” Maclosky said. “Every student is entitled to a free breakfast and lunch, whether they have the funds or not, but they do incur debt. Our debt is up $300,000 right now among people who do not qualify for free or reduced but aren’t able to pay.”

The rising need for food assistance needs comes as Arlington County is preparing to launch this month a Food Security Coalition tasked with implementing some two dozen strategies for tackling hunger.

Food insecurity affects about 7% of Arlington residents  — 16,670 people — says Hopkins. It disproportionately affects people of color: 53% and 20% of AFAC clients are Hispanic or Latino and Black, respectively, while comprising 16% and 9% of the county’s population.

Food insecurity can mean “‘I’m worried that my food will run out before I have enough money to get more,’ to ‘I have zero food in my house,” Hopkins said. “We know there are people on both ends of that spectrum in Arlington and people journey that spectrum all the time.” (more…)

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